The Twitter #WorldCup group stage recap

In just over two weeks, the World Cup has become one of the most talked about events on Twitter of all time.

In just over two weeks, the FIFA World Cup has become one of the most talked about events on Twitter of all time. Tweets have reached 300 million – twice that of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London – in just the group stage of the tournament.

While Lionel Messi is most mentioned globally on Twitter during the World Cup thus far, Luis Suarez is on top in Asia Pacific and in India. The infamous biting incident and the subsequent nine-match ban for Suarez have been more discussed among Asians and Indians than Messi’s flamboyance and four-goal tally. Meanwhile, the football players most tweeted about in India are Luis Suarez, Pepe and Christiano Ronaldo.

With the group stage now complete, here is a compilation of metrics and visualizations that illustrate how the conversation has unfolded on Twitter since the matches began.

There have been more than 300 million Tweets related to the #WorldCup since group play began

The #BRAvsCRO match drove the most number of conversations on Twitter

The opening match between host country Brazil (@CBF_Futebol) and Croatia (@HNS_CFF) saw the most Twitter conversation during a match in real time thus far, with over 12.2 million Tweets. Here are the top five most-tweeted matches during group play:

Marcelo (@12MarceloV) scoring on team’s own goal in the opening match was the most-tweeted moment

Three of the top five most-tweeted moments occurred during Brazil’s opening match vs. Croatia on June 12. Here are the top five plays that generated the biggest peaks of Twitter conversation, measured in Tweets per minute (TPM), during the group stage:

*Brazil’s Marcelo (@12MarceloV) scored on team’s own goal during the June 12 match vs. Croatia: 378,085 TPM
*Clint Dempsey (@clint_dempsey) goal against Portugal on June 22 that put USA up 2-1: 304,603 TPM
*Brazil’s Neymar (@neymarjr) first goal in the June 12 match vs. Croatia: 280,265 TPM
*Portugal’s Pepe (@officialpepe) receives a red card for a head-butt on Germany’s Thomas Müller (@esmuellert_) and is ejected from the June 16 match: 261,026 TPM
*Brazil’s Oscar (@oscar11) goal in the June 12 match vs. Croatia: 256,953 TPM

Argentina’s Lionel Messi is the most-mentioned player globally, but Luis Suarez is most-mentioned in APAC and India

Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Brazil’s Neymar Jr., who have both scored four goals in group play, are the most mentioned #WorldCup players so far on Twitter. And thanks to the infamous biting incident and subsequent ban, Uruguay’s Luis Suárez is the most-mentioned player across the Asia Pacific region and India on Twitter during the #WorldCup group stage.

The most retweeted Tweet came from Italy’s Mario Balotelli (@FinallyMario)

Mario Balotelli (@FinallyMario) tweeted about the fact that #ENG’s fate could be determined by #ITAvCRC. With over 177,000 Retweets, it’s the most shared Tweet of the World Cup. Balotelli’s cheeky Tweet resonated around the world — it has been viewed over 17 million times, as illustrated in this chart:

#USA and #BRA are the most used hashflags

Fans around the world have been adding color to #WorldCup Tweets using hashflags to cheer on their team. Here is a graphic that illustrates all the Tweets with hashflags since the tournament began on June 12.